Monday, 15 March 2010

I hate losing. I think it’s apparent from my psyche and the way I react to a defeat, especially if we lose in a way that is humiliating or where we did not put up a fight. People who I’ve played with, or coached in the past know that I live and breathe the game and I can’t stand lacklustre attitudes, or if some one is playing like they’re in gumdrop land. Yes I do throw, what you may call, tantrums but I do it only because I care and because I want to play with intensity and show the fire I’ve got towards the game every time I’m on the ice... Continues at: http://is.gd/aHqpr

Let me tell you a story of two teams, day and night. A story that will puzzle most and that has an ending similar to any M. Knight Shamalayan (or however his name is spelt) movie.

Chapter 1:Team Day:Once upon a time Team Day travelled to a dark and dreary place on the planet. The maps had marked the zone only as ‘Here there be evil’. The depressing surroundings of Gosport always sent a chill down the spine of any player who dared enter the domain. Whenever anyone arrived at the lair of the Scorpions, the short walk in to the lair often felt like needing to wear a stab vest, such were the surroundings and the trolls that lived in the area.

Valiantly ten men entered the rink. Knowing what lay ahead of them in a rink the size of most living rooms. Collision filled hockey in a place that any sensible country would’ve condemned years ago as unsafe for contact sports. Despite the game going back and forth and a few terrible mistakes, Team Day re-grouped and came out the gate fighting. Scorpions fought hard, but Team Day managed to snap the spine of the Scorpions and pulled away by 11-5 win. In a tight battle Team Day did everything right and did everything as they were supposed to and won.

Afterward, drinks flowed and Team Day that arrived at the Scorpion’s lair with a smile on their faces, left with an even bigger grin on their faces.

Chapter 2:Team Night:A week later Team Day had succumbed under a spell of something, something Dark Side. A game where the buzz of the previous victory still fresh one everyones mind and the Scorpion’s tail hanging on the changing room wall Team Day went to hunt for Panthers in the familiar surroundings.

However, where for a period and a half, Team Day showed some form, the spell descended and Team Day was turned into Team Night. Everything that the 10 valiant men did the week before, was thrown out the window. Where the previous win relied on team play and short changes, Team Night played with long shifts and as individuals. The Panthers mutilated Team Night with an ugly score line.

No smiles were shared, no drinks flowed. The happiness of last week was replaced with a dark void.

What a difference a few individuals make and what a difference of those individuals’ attitudes make to the good spirits of many.

Monday, 1 March 2010

Why is mental toughness important in hockey? You could ask 20 hockey players and you would get 20 different answers. Mental toughness and preparedness is something that is individual to each player, but all of the 20 players would still agree that mental toughness is important. Each individual will respond to different mental stimulus and mental toughness is something that each player achieves in their own way, though the coaches will always raise the explosiveness and emotional charge for a game.

But why does it matter? Will it make a difference if a player comes into the game 'flat' and not charged up mentally? My view is that yes, yes it does. Hockey, when played at a high level is a physical battle and your body and mind is constantly looking for excuses to give that one inch in order to give your body a break. The only difference is that the body might have the energy, but what goes on between the ears of a player will greatly diminish the energy reserves available.

Toughness is particularly important in situations when you are fighting a game where you are down but you know its not out of reach. It is players who think that all is lost who will drag teams down, where the teams' leadership, from captains to coaches need to make sure that they use their experience and passion to guide the team to victory.

Hockey is a momentum game, where events like goals, hits, fights and good plays can swing the momentum to one team. The team that scores will of course have the momentum and knowledge that the other team needs to fight back, where as the team that has to claw back the differential, needs to dig deep and demonstrate mental toughness and get back in the game.

When I look back at last season, whenever we went down by a goal, we didn't have the type of leadership on the bench or on the ice (myself included) that would've stood up and said, 'C'mon guys, there's only one goal in it, we can do it.' Or 'This is our game! Let's fight to win this.' Whenever we went down by a goal, the mood on the bench and changing room was far from motivational, but more like in a mortuary. We, as a team, didn't have mental toughness to compete in those situations and we basically let our heads fill with thoughts of fear and not being good enough, though with good and positive encouragement we could've pulled back a few of the games.

When a team goes into a game with a losing mentality, there's very little anyone can do to turn that around. The terrible thing about this mentality is that, hockey having somewhat of a pack mentality, it quickly filters down to each player. Even those who want to perform will not give their optimum performance.

Therefore I can only say that mental toughness is still important, Perhaps equally important if not more than physical toughness. If you are not mentally tough, a big hit, a goal against, or a bad play will destroy what little confidence you may have had, where the mentally tough player will use these things as a catalyst to play better.

Friday, 26 February 2010

If you’re religious, you know that lent is a time for giving up. Where I’m not religious, I thought that to improve my intensity for the up and coming season, I’ll give something up as well.

During the year when I suffered my knee injury and was cleared to play, I scored points in every single game, all the way to the finals. Back in those days, I was a vegetarian and I didn’t drink. To make sure that I squeeze every last bit of performance out of my body, I have decided to give up alcohol for the duration of the summer cup.

Providing that I achieve my ultimate goal, I will carry the pledge through to that season as well. So after 5th of March I shall not be consuming any alcohol for the duration of the season.

What is my motive for this? For those of you who don’t know I didn’t drink for 2 years due because I didn’t like the taste of it, or the hangovers. Where I don’t drink that much now days, I find that when I do, it takes me a lot longer to recover, which hinders my training and effectively playing as all our games are over the weekend. Further to this I hope that the approach will help me gain that extra bit of jump on the ice and allow for more adrenaline to course through my veins in games.

If I am to play this game for the maximum amount of time, I need to make sure that I do something that I have ignored in the past and take care of my body and listen to its requirements, rather than go hell for leather and try to push through serious injuries.

Thursday, 25 February 2010

So the months and weeks are counting down to what should be an interesting cup competition. Few teams have pulled out and a couple of teams have lost core players so it will be interesting to see how it will all pan out.

As I tick off another month from my season preparation, I thought it would be a good time to review where I am in terms of fitness and overall feel, which is something I have not done for a while.

This month I have worked on strength training with a programme that consists of the following exercises:

Where I find Day 2 harder, it is also more enjoyable as it gets a good sweat going.

My body weight had gone up and I have managed to gain all of the bulk that I lost during the appendectomy and the inactivity it caused.

On the ice I feel faster and stronger, though I’m being overly cautious as I’m breaking in new skates and I haven’t quite gotten used to them yet.

Performance wise, I feel faster and I think one area that has improved more than most is that I am difficult to move away from a screen in front of the goal. All in all I am positive about my progress.

Things to work on:

Need to start speed, agility and quickness (SAQ) exercises and dedicate more time over the weekends to training. Also I need to get on the bike more and make sure I do some low impact cardio work to make sure I further improve my stamina.

One of my major concerns for reaching my goals has been that I have no idea whether I am good enough to make it. I have no clear bench mark that I can measure myself against and compare, whether I am in a position where I can compete with the players that play at higher levels. One thing that I always strive on is criticism and feedback and it has always helped me to push on with work life.

Whatever criticism or feedback I’ve received, I’ve used it as fuel to succeed. This way of thinking has skyrocketed my work career and helped me to excel in situations that I thought were beyond me. The same applies to hockey. When my coach in the Dutch league told me I wasn’t hitting enough, the next few weeks I worked on my angles and timing my hits right to make sure that I didn’t play myself out of the situation.

There are countless of other examples that I can think of where the coaches have told me something and I’ve worked on it to improve myself. When I got back to the game of hockey, I did it through inline hockey. When I started I had been out of the game for over two years and I was appalling in my first season as I struggled to make the wheels do what the normal ice skate did. I spent my first off season skating, often alone, in the university’s sports hall, practicing turns and pivots and making sure that I was able to manoeuvre on the skates. The next season, I went to score points in 24 consecutive games, just from being able to skate and move properly.

Now that I’m back on the ice, I know that my speed, shot and physical play are up to scratch, but I’m not sure of what my coaches expect of me and what role they want me to play. In the Dutch league I was playing a defensive forward role, basically being used in situations when we had to keep the puck out of our net and zone. With my new found scoring touch, I have been playing a more offensive game, which I enjoy. But at the same time, I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to be a goal scorer, a play maker or a power forward. I have been combining the elements of all three, but due to lack of feedback I’m not sure if I’m playing the systems right.

That’s no criticism of our coach, in fact I have nothing but respect for him as he takes numerous hours of his time to make sure we have a team to play for. It’s just my personal preference to hear feed back and learn where I’m going wrong when on the ice and also to hear from him what he sees my role in the team, whether it is play making or scoring.

Personally I see myself as a playmaking forward, as I tend to have a good vision of the ice in the offensive zone. I like to work out of the corner or from behind the net and find the rushing guys to pass to. Sure I like nothing better than scoring goals but I also need to play to my strengths.

I’m not saying that I want to be grouped as a passer and a set up man, because I do have the nose for the net. My goals are clear and I am sure that I will be able to translate into multiple points and wins for the team.

Friday, 19 February 2010

This blog post goes off the normal beat of this blog and will look at the state of Finnish hockey at the moment. Where normal posts would focus on my own development, this post will actually pose opinion and attempt at being a hockey pundit:

As I watched Finland square off against Belarus the other night, I was both happy and a little bit frustrated. Perhaps most of the frustration came with dealing with a broadband connection that provides .5Mbps connection and makes watching live sports nearly impossible. However, the main part of the frustration was due to the state of Finland’s hockey in general.

The team we are fielding in Vancouver 2010, is by all accounts one of the strongest we could muster together. I see the Finnish team as an old battle ship, trust worthy, but it has seen its brightest days. Our key players everyone talks about and knows in the wider hockey community are Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu and Jere Lehtinen. Though I have to say that there are youngish players there as well, mainly in Mikko Koivu, Tuomo Ruutu and Valtteri Filppula.

Additionally, Finland displayed a dismal performance in the U-20 Championships during Christmas. Coming 5th in the tournament behind Swizerland is not something to be proud of. I mean the Swiss, c’mon.

The state of the team is such, that compared with many teams, mainly US and Canada, we have no young talent what so ever. We have no players under 25 on our roster, where both US, Canada and even Russia have such players. We have no exciting stars. The old guard of Selanne and co. have seen their glory days and where Filppula and younger Koivu are great players, they will never be classed as NHL super stars. And it pains me to say that, as I am a huge fan of Mikko Koivu.

The problem however is not with these players, but I see it as a deep rooted problem of Finnish athleticism. Our systems are hopelessly out of date and our junior development is aimed at developing players who do their work in the corners and have no Alex Ovechkin like skills.

The other problem I can see in the current Finnish hockey is the policy of ‘everyone plays’, which has ultimately hampered development of truly great players. Now we struggle with scoring and we are always thinking pass first, rather than shoot. Thankfully, the new head coach Jukka Jalonen has a different take on this and is actually encouraging people to take more shots. I can’t fault Jalonen at all. He coached my hometown team, HPK, into the Finnish championships for the first time and is to all intents and purposes a great coach and brings a fresh style of thinking to the national team.

After that pseudo intelligent look into the problems, let’s focus on the team that we have out there.

There was a lot of talk about why Jussi Jokinen was left out of the team, but I can sort of see why. He has only started to play after the decisions were made and probably it was the right one to make, as the decision to leave him out has saved him from an abysmal season.

Upfront the Finnish team looks strong, well maybe not for Ville Peltonen and Jarkko Immonen. With all due respect to Peltonen, who has had a stellar career, I think we could’ve substituted him for a younger player, perhaps some one like Jokinen or even a wild card of Mikael Granlund (projected first round pick in the 2010 draft) from the Finnish league. I’m not a fan of Jarkko Immonen at all. He dominated the SM-Liiga last year and this year in the tougher KHL he has done nothing spectacular.

Our defence is questionable. We have super defensive players in Kimmo Timonen, Toni Lydman and Sami Salo (providing he is healthy), but after that who do we have. Joni Pitkanen? Well yes he is a great player and logs big minutes for Carolina, but he tends to play only when he is interested in playing after him, I’m struggling to think who the rest of the D players are. Washed up NHL players who couldn’t hack it there and now play the KHL. Oh we’ve got Janne Niskala from the Swedish leagues there too as a power play specialist. Doubtful, that with that defence we will pull off a similar surprise as in Turin.

In net we are strong, perhaps the strongest in the whole tournament right behind Canada. Kiprusoff, Backstrom and Niittymaki are all elite goalies in the NHL. This is the most puzzling thing about Finnish hockey. I can name a load of goalies from the Finnish leagues who are great and are working toward a brilliant professional career in the NHL, but I can’t for the life of me think of any prospects from the outfield players.

Despite all of this, I think Finland will stand a chance. Our team is not super-star studded like those of Canada and Russia and I think our coaching staff has a good grasp of the addressing the problems that have traditionally plagued Finnish hockey. Jukka Jalonen coached HPK to Finnish Championships in 2006, Risto Dufva coached JYP Jyvaskyla to Finnish Champioship in 2009 and Timo Lehkonen was Jalonen’s number two in HPK’s run to the championship.

However good of a job the coaching staff and players are able to pull off, Finnish Ice Hockey Association needs to address the junior development of hockey players. The leadership from the coaches to the captains will surely be one of Finland’s strengths and who knows, maybe we will capture a medal, I just don’t think we will be able to make the Turin 2006 silver any brighter this year. After these Olympics, I am not holding my breath that Finland will produce brilliant results in the World Championship competitions, or Olympics for that matter, for a number of years

Desperation can be a great ally. I find that I accomplish the best results when under increased pressure or everything has to be done in the desperation mode. Whether a big game is on the line or if you’re fighting for a win in overtime, or you need to get something urgent finished off at work.

I think the best example I can give of desperation is my teams’ play in the summer cup when we went to the playoffs to face Bristol Warriors. The whole team was a bit nervous to begin with and where we were trading goals left right and centre, Bristol managed to get away. In the third period though, we pulled the game back with what can only be described as desperation. Every guy on the team was doing their jobs, laying their body down infront of the puck, taking and giving hits and most importantly scoring goals. Personally I had two in the game, which helped us greatly, but it wasn’t enough.

I’ve played in big games and have had the privilege to play and be coached by people who have experience from big games and events. It has helped me calm down for those important games and almost view them as ‘any other games’. Sure it’s not quite like the game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals and no one would ever say that it’s just another game, because that whole event is something extra special.

However, with all the success that I have experienced, comes at a greater price. I think I have lost and been disappointed more times than I have won something in my career. For many, the constant disappointments can result in the end of their careers, but for me and many others as well, it is a source for inspiration and drive. Ultimately it the triumphs that you will remember forever, rather than the losses.

But despite all that I have lost in the game of hockey and all that I am yet to achieve, there is something that drives me on. Part of it is desperation and the other part is hope. I am desperate to win and will do anything to get there and fight to make things happen for the team. I am hoping that my performances will drive me to a new height and that I will be able to achieve greatness once more.

When all else seems gone and no matter what adversities you face, you need desperation and hope (among other things) to push through. No matter how bleak it all seems, but Hope always dies last.

Sunday, 14 February 2010

• Why do I play hockey?I play hockey, because it is the ultimate team sport. It combines skill, strength, speed and it is aggressive. When I’m on the ice, it is one of the happiest places on the earth. I love the rush of adrenaline that every shift creates and I love the feeling of having worked till you have nothing left in the tank and go beyond that.

• What Do I want to achieve?I want to achieve nothing but victories. I want to contribute every shift. Most of all I want to achieve my ultimate goal, to play as a pro.

• Do I have a long term hockey goal or a career goal?I sort of answered it above, I want to play as a pro and carry on playing to the best of my ability till the end of my career.

• What is my goal for the season?Help the team to reach the playoffs and fight for a championship. Individually I want to have a good year and score in excess of 30 points and secure a place with a professional or semi professional team.

Monday, 25 January 2010

Though this blog has always been about speaking about motivation, I have examined different options available to myself in and around getting to the level I wanted and hence I’ve started to look for a personal sponsor for myself to help cover the cost of my ITC. Below is a letter that I have and will be sending to businesses in and around the UK in the hopes that someone would be able to sponsor me in a time when all advertising/sponsor budgets are tight.

Last year I made the conscious decision of trying to make it to the pro's before I exceed my shelf life as an athlete. Since making this commitment, I have spent significant time training and honing my skills to compete for a roster spot with one of the many professional teams in the UK and the rest of the world. I came close, with securing a try out with the Isle of Wight Raiders (had to cancel due to an injury), Basingstoke Bison, as well as attracting interest from number of teams from the Australian and Dutch leagues.

Despite these early indicators for success and my ability to compete for a spot, there is always one final hurdle that prevents me signing. As a foreign player, I would have to pay for my International Transfer Card (ITC) in order to be eligible to play for the British league teams, which is why I'm getting in touch. What I am looking to do is to find personal sponsor from the business world that would be able to help me out with my quest to achieve my dream of playing professional hockey again. The cost of an ITC ranges between £700-800 and in the current economic climate many teams are hesitant to make such an investment, unless the player comes with credentials from North American leagues, such as the AHL, ECHL or even the NHL.

As this is only a preliminary query to find out whether there is interest within your company or within your client base, here is what I can offer you: Logos and corporate visibility on my blog, logos and visibility on my twitter page which has just been launched and has been attracting approximately 2-3 new followers per day. I would also be happy to endorse your company through wearing your branded t-shirts to the gym, which is located in the Chineham Business Park, housing many technology companies such as Motorola, Ericsson, Infotrends and many others.

All of the companies at the Business Park have an corporate agreement with Fitness First in Chineham and many of the employees regularly work out at the gym, which would provide good exposure for your/your clients' brand.

The main sponsorship benefit that I am striving for is to, depending on a team that I can reach an agreement with, is to have you as my personal sponsor, which could entail your logos on my jersey as well as announcements during the game, when I score a goal, assist or have to spend time in the sin bin (though I'm a fairly clean player). However I must stress that this is purely dependant on the team I sign with and can be discussed further once I have signed the agreement.

Currently the teams I will be going after for next season include: Basingstoke Bison, Bracknell Bees, Slough Jets, Swindon Wildcats, Telford Tigers, Haringey Greyhounds, Isle of Wight Raiders, Bristol Pitbulls.

All I am looking for at the moment is to find out whether there is any scope of us working together in achieving my dream. Any formal agreements can be made closer to 2010-2011 ice hockey season starts and I have found a team.

I understand that times are tough at the moment, but I'd be interested to hear if there was any budget for sponsorship.

Wednesday, 13 January 2010

I often get asked about my training and whether I train with a personal trainer or not, or whether I have a ‘gym partner’. Different people have different preferences, but my preference is individual training. I’ve been training with people in the past and have found it great as it was a great way to unwind and basically just chew shit or talk about the NHL season.

But at the moment, my training is something that I try and use as an exercise to enhance my mental preparedness and toughness. There’s no greater challenge, in my mind, than trying to push more weight than you were able to the previous time. When I was last at home and talking about training with my cousin, who has for all intents and purposes been somewhat of an idol to me, he told me that training at the gym was some of the most intense he had experienced in any sport. That combined with the requirements of hockey and you have the perfect athlete.

My cousin said that while you’re working out it is the one place where you can find out what you really are about. It’s that mentality that I take with me to the gym every time. I know I’m not the biggest guy there, nor do I intend to be, but the way I train is always geared with very specific goals in mind. Examples are such as “if I use 40kg weight for my jump squats how will it improve my explosiveness compared to using a lighter weight.” I know it sounds awfully meatheadish, but it is something that I use to push myself.

Another thing that training does it increases your tolerance for pain. It’s a well known fact that hockey is a tough contact sport and that to move some form of weight can often be a painful experience.

Hockey is a great sport because to be truly successful at it, it requires total dedication. Whatever you do off the ice has to reflect back to how it will benefit you on the ice. To make that commitment takes a lot of character and sacrifice. I know of times when I could’ve had the chance to go out and enjoy myself and have a few beers, but I opted to stay in and avoid a hangover just because I knew that I could get a better workout done the next day.

The major drawback about all of this is that often, especially this level, is that the life of a hockey player can be a awfully solitary. Sure your family is there, but you want that part of your life to be completely separate from hockey and training, though you have to be accommodating about the schedule and fit everything around games and training.

But the truth is, this is the path that I’ve chosen and there is no way that I would voluntarily give it up. It requires dedication, determination, grit and passion to put up with simple things as putting up with shit weather conditions to get to the gym. Though at times I think I should’ve done what my coach did and build my own gym in a shed somewhere.

Friday, 8 January 2010

So why does white powder cause so much hassle in the UK? I’m not talking about cocaine here, but snow. Snow is something that I grew up with and it was something that came down every year in late October, early November. Though snow isn’t seen on these shores that often, it shouldn’t cause such huge disruptions, or wide spread panic.

Because of the snow, my training has been severely disrupted. With Christmas holidays and the snow messing things up, I haven’t been able to train as intensively as I would like. In the last three weeks, my on ice training has been cancelled twice and with the summer cup coming round the corner quickly I’m worried that we will be ill prepared unless we step our training up and start playing some friendly matches to ready our selves for the up and coming challenge.

I find snow quite fun, but because of the disruption it has caused, it is starting to get a bit old. I mean our bins haven’t been collected in two weeks now and our recycling bin hasn’t been collected in over a month. I think the old adage “if you want something done, do it yourself” rings true as we’re going to take our rubbish to the dump ourselves over the weekend. But that’s enough on that topic before this turns into a rant.

The great thing about snow in Finland when I was growing up was that it was the anticipation of the local out door rinks being frozen. The ground care takers would start laying water down as soon as the temperature dropped below zero and usually within a few weeks you could set up a game of outdoor shinny on the rinks. It didn’t matter what age you were, or what your ability was. It was just great playing the game outdoors and have some serious fun.

You see back then it didn’t matter how cold it was, or how much snow was on the ground. You knew the rinks would be clear and cut on regular intervals. It didn’t matter if it was -25 degrees with added -10 degrees from wind chill when you were skating. It simply did not matter. All that did was to shoot pucks in the net, pretending you’ve scored the game winner in over time in the seventh game of Stanley Cup finals, or just being there and have a good time with your friends. I think my school success always suffered during winter because I was in such a rush to get to the rink. Though my parents told me I wasn’t allowed out, until my homework was done and given they granted me the independence and responsibility of doing it on my own I usually whizzed through it (with often poor results) to get to the rink in time.

What made that time even more fun was that even at those temperatures, getting to the rink on a bike didn’t matter. You see in those days kids didn’t have mobile phones so you couldn’t just ring your parents to tell them to come and pick you up once you’d had enough, so getting home was interesting when you were all sweaty, but it didn’t matter. 5km in the cold didn’t feel that bad.

As the NHL had its regular outdoor game on new year’s day, it took me back to the days when I played outdoors and thought back on all those great memories from that time. I only wish that I could do that again sometime soon as it is the environment where I fell in love with the game and over the years it’s been a great relationship.

I think as a player I still have a good 10 years of shelf life left, maybe more if I take good care of my body and learn to listen to it more. In those ten years I intend to achieve some of the goals I have set for myself and hopefully some of them will come true.

t would seem that I have neglected this blog for a while. There hasbeen a number of holidays and what not that have diverted my focus awayfrom the blog for the time being. That and I've been busy training,though it has been greatly interrupted due to the recent snow fall we'vehad in the UK. The last time I've been to the gym has been on the 3rd ofJanuary. Damn white powder coming so hard that the gym has actually beenclosed.

Given that there hasn't been much movement on the hockey front as we areonly coming up to the season now and we haven't really played any gamesrecently there haven't been that much to write about to be honest. Iwant to keep this blog somewhat fresh and I didn't really feel likeposts on 'went to the gym today. Did three sets of 12 on legpress at130kg' would be that interesting or beneficial for anyone to read.

Though saying that, I have been able to start pushing the normal type ofweight again now that I'm recovered from the operation. The only slightsnag I've had is a broken finger after I got a slap shot on the tip ofthe glove. Slightly painful, but nothing that would prevent me fromplaying or training for that matter.

I mentioned the operation and despite it being three months ago now, Istill wouldn't class myself as 100% fit. I've managed to put on themuscle that I lost but I haven't fully regained the explosiveness to thedegree I want it to be at.

However it will come and I'm sure that by the time it comes to thesummer cup I'll be in great condition and will be able to pursue myultimate goals.

The one thing that I have done, is that I have opened a twitter page forthis blog as well at www.twitter.com/amateur_hockey. You can followrandom short thoughts there as well as gain links to the actual blog andstories. Though if you are reading this here then you must already knowthat.